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Information about Martin is crazy sparse. Nothing was
published about his funeral or even that he was from
Wisconsin. Genealogy searches turned up his burial
site.
His Chicago address was reported in victim lists as
1385 Congress. City directories did not report
Martin as a Chicago resident, however, and reported
only one family at the Congress street address in
1903 — widow Mary A. Lorden and her four grown
children Ella Julia, John, Daniel Joseph, and Mary
Rose Lorden.
Lordens
I found no familial connection between Martin and the Lordens. He might
have been visiting for the holidays or boarding
while working in Chicago. He was of an age to have
been a suitor for two of the Lorden sisters: Mary R
Lorden, who worked as a collector for the Internal
Revenue Service, and Ella Julia Lorden, a teacher.
He might have been a friend of Daniel or John Lorden.
I found no reports of Lorden family members having
attended the Iroquois or indication they were
theater or music enthusiasts. It should be noted,
however, that fewer than half of surviving audience
member names were reported in newspapers, so there
could have been Lorden's among the survivors. That
Mr. Bluebeard was popular with teachers is evidenced
by the victim list having included over forty
Chicago teachers - but none worked at the McAllister
School where Mary R. Lorden taught.
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Saukville
The Stern boys were raised on a farm in Saukville Village, Ozaukee
County, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee. The family
farm was probably located on State Hwy 57. Martin
was the youngest of seven children born to German
immigrants Friedrick (1820–1896) and Apollina
Schardt Stern (1833–1886). Both parents had died in
the decade before the fire, as had their middle son,
Charles, but five of Martin's siblings survived to
mourn his loss: Henry, Mary, William, Adam, and
Kathie.
Milwaukee
It appears that Martin left the family farm around 1890 and moved to
Milwaukee, where he found work selling milk,
presumably from a delivery wagon. In 1896 he was
joined in Milwaukee by his older brother and his
wife, Adam Stern (1866–1918) and Louisa Schottler
Stern (1893–1983), who lived above/behind their
grocery store at 598 Seventh. Martin lived there too
for a couple of years, eventually finding his own
lodging but continuing to share a business address
with Adam. Martin's name disappeared from public
records after 1900 and until his brother's 1903
death.
Martin's body was found at the Cook County Morgue
and identified by Adam, who presumably traveled
ninety miles by train from Milwaukee to Chicago to
make the identification. Martin was buried in the
Stern family plot at Saint Mary's Cemetery in
Saukville alongside his parents. Several of his
siblings would be interred there in later years.
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